Failing to Report Abuse and Neglect

CBS12 Investigates uncovered reports of true horror stories happening at nursing homes across the country that should have been reported to law enforcement. These cases include life threatening falls, starvation, even sexual assaults that were not reported.

“We found that CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services didn’t have adequate controls in place to detect these potential instances of abuse or neglect,” said Curtis Roy, Assistant Regional Inspector General for Audit Services, OIG.

“CMS acknowledged that that they are not doing the data match to identify cases of neglect,” added Roy. “They also acknowledged that they have not identified any instances of nursing home staff not reporting cases as required.”

The audit found 38 cases that were so bad, by law the nursing homes were required to contact local law enforcement. But, they didn’t do it.

CMS must initiate protocols to adhere to a long-standing federal statute that requires nursing homes to report abuse cases to police and other state agencies immediately or risk fines of up to $300,000.

“They don’t care about those fines,” explained attorney Joe Landy. “It is business as usual. It is cheaper to pay those fines to keep these facilities understaffed with people that are not properly trained while they make record setting profits. “It exposed what is a long-standing problem in Florida,” said Landy. “It exposed a nursing home that was making a huge amount of money with no accountability whatsoever.”